21.9.09

Now, as no one's actually ever laid out exactly what I'm supposed to talk about in these blogs, I'm going to digress a bit before we get to tonight's programme - sorry!

As you'd imagine, our office is full of tv monitors. Most mainstream channels are on somewhere and all news outlets are kept an eye on, as you'd expect. On each computer, you can open up a box and watch whatever channel you like. Most people have their 24-hour news channel of choice on quietly in the background and dip into it when something catches their eye. Today, they're showing the memorial service of Sir Bobby Robson live from Durham Cathedral. He's famous, of course, for managing England, Newcastle, Barcelona and Ipswich, but also played for and very briefly managed Fulham. The great and the good of the football world were at the service and the speeches were moving but understated - a befitting tribute to a man widely regarded as one of the nicest in sport and someone I had the honour of interviewing.

I was working on a series of football documentaries and he agreed to be interviewed about his successes at Ipswich Town. He arrived for the interview, which was in one of the directors' boxes at St. James's Park and politely asked how long it was going to take. I told him about half and hour? He politely replied that he was very busy and could give me just 15 minutes. I was nervous, this was Bobby Robson, after all!? I had a lot of ground to cover in just 15 minutes, I'd done my research and had a lengthy list of questions to ask. Sadly, I only got to ask about three of them...not because he had to go or because we ran out of time, but because when Sir Bobby started talking about football, there was simply no stopping him. He covered every conceivable topic with boundless enthusiasm with me barely having to ask a question. Three tape changes, two batteries and an hour and a half later and we were done. We could have made three documentaries out of the stories he told that day or we could have thrown the tapes in the bin on the way out and I would still have been completely thrilled to have spent an hour and a half in his company. My favourite story in two sentences was the time he took the FA Cup to a school fete after winning it with Ipswich Town in 1978. He forgot to get it back to the local police station in time for it to be kept under lock and key for the night so he slept with it under his bed. "Safe as houses, there", he said.

Tonight's programme then and Simon Harris has our lead story and there are doubts over London's Crossrail project fewer than two weeks after we reported on a one billion pound loan that appeared to secure its future. Lib Dem Treasury Spokesman, Vince Cable, says cross-party support for the project to link Berkshire and Essex is waning in the light of growing pressure for wholesale spending cuts. Simon asks how secure the £16b project is. Transport Minister Sadiq Khan MP joins us live.

We've also got the story of a worried London mum whose daughter contracted meningitis twice before her first birthday. Mum's now fronting a campaign to raise awareness amidst fears that at an upsurge in swine flu could lead to doctors misdiagnosing meningitis. Phil Bayles will tell us more.

Our talking point for the day is about the size of catwalk models after one designer snubbed the accepted 'wisdom' of using size zero models in his show at London Fashion Week. Mark Fast used size 12 and 14 models to show off his latest collection, but not everyone liked Mr Fast's decision (namely two senior members of his creative team) and beat a speedy retreat to the door. We'll be asking for your thoughts.

All that plus Newton Faulkner's on the show to talk about how an accident almost put paid to his chart-topping career and how doctors put back together the man whose first album was the retrospectively spookily titled "Hand Built By Robots"!?

Lucy went to meet him and she'll also be on hand in the studio to explain further!

Journey Planner

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